


I'm Here With You

by icecoldwlw



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Betty Cooper Deserves Better, Betty Cooper Needs a Hug, Established Betty Cooper/Veronica Lodge, Established Relationship, F/F, Girls in Love, Lesbian Veronica Lodge, Mental Health Issues, Past Child Abuse, Self-Harm, vent fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-24 19:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17710271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icecoldwlw/pseuds/icecoldwlw
Summary: Betty has her first therapy appointment, and Veronica is there for her every step of the way.





	I'm Here With You

**Author's Note:**

> This was a bit of a vent fic.
> 
> If I got anything wrong, or there's anything offensive I wrote, please let me know!

Betty sat on the soft, probably overly-expensive couch in Veronica’s house, staring at the coffee table. Keeping her body deathly still while her mind races faster and faster.

Fear clouded her thoughts and built up in her chest, threatening to spill out in a volatile way. She tries to keep herself centred.

It’s not working very well.

Every conclusion she finds is the same. No matter what leads up to it, no matter how positively she tries to see it, everything would end the same. With her in a mental hospital.

Betty, clearly, has been raised with certain ideas of mental health drilled in to her.

She feels ‘drilled’ is a bit softer than what her parents had done to her. Subtly with her father, explosively with her mother.

(Her own nails were embedded in her palms, digging deeper and deeper by the second. Her eyes were burning. She bit her cheeks in an effort to stay silent. She tasted blood. 

Her ears rung as Alice screamed in her face. Her hands stung.)

She bit her cheeks now, too. Not as hard, and not to punish herself. This was more to feel a pressure, a force. Something, anything, other than anxiety.

“Baby?” Betty turns quickly. Too quickly, she thinks as she rubs her neck.

“Hey, V.” She says, ignoring the pain.

“Are you okay?” Veronica moves towards her, reaching for her shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be fine.” Betty says. It sounds unconvincing, even to her. More conspicuous than soothing, more upsetting than calming.

She’s always been a bad liar.

“Hun, it’s okay to be nervous. This is your first session. I’ll be in there if you need me to be, and we can leave at any time. I promise, nothing bad will happen.” Veronica gives her a soft, comforting smile.

“I know. And I know you’ll protect me.” Veronica makes her way around the couch, sitting next to Betty. Her hand shifts from Betty’s shoulder to her hips. Betty leans closer to her girlfriend.

“Damn right I will.” Her smile grows wider. Betty shifts, pressing her lips into that gorgeous smile. Veronica accepts the kiss, turning her head to deepen it, and moving her lips against Betty’s in a way that made her crazy.

They part when they hear footsteps coming from the kitchen. 

“Okay girls, are you ready?” Hermione asks. Her smile is warm and open, so different from the cold and forced ones Betty is used to. So much different from the distrusting eyes of her father.

“Betty?” Veronica says.

“Yeah… Yeah, I’m ready.” Her voice sounds strange to her own ears. 

“Okay.” Veronica says, taking her hand. Betty focuses on their joined hands, Veronica’s touch keeping her in the present. She allows Veronica to lead her out of the house.

She fidgets with her other hand, touching the tips of each finger to her thumb in quick, inconsistent motions. She feels Veronica’s hand tighten around her own.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Veronica says.

“I, um,” Betty pauses. She could tell Veronica anything, always. She should be honest. She shouldn’t be trying to bring Veronica down, or trying to ruin her day any more than she already has.

“Hey,” Betty looks to her, trying to hide her panic.

“You can tell me anything. I care about you, and I love you.” Veronica says, putting a certain emphasis on every word.

Betty bit her lip. 

“You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to. I’m here, I promise.” She always knew what to say.

“I don’t want to be put in a hospital.” Betty blurts out as Veronica opens the car door. 

Veronica stops.

He turns to face Betty.

“Baby, is that what you’ve been thinking this entire time?”

“I researched it, and if I’m a danger to the people around me—”

“Betty,”

“I could be put in one, or even if my parents find out—”

“Betty.”

“They did it to Polly, what’s stopping them from doing it to me? If anything, I’m the least favourite—” 

“Betty!”

“What?” She snaps, her voice more harsh than she intended. Veronica doesn’t look fazed, though, as she approaches her with her arms open wide.

As soon as Veronica hugs her, she breaks down. Tears spill out of her eyes, slowly, at first, then more rapidly as seconds tick by. Veronica smells like roses, and her hands are rubbing smooth circles into Betty’s back and waist.

She tries to keep her sobs quiet and her tears off Veronica’s coat, but it doesn’t seem like Veronica cares much.

“It’s okay, love… You’re going to be okay.” Betty feels the hum of Veronica’s voice deep in her chest, and finds that she trusts her.

She trusts her more than she trusts anything else in the world.

Betty’s sobs die down, and her final tears cascade down her wet cheeks.

She wiped her red nose on her sleeve, and Veronica watches her with adoration and concern. 

“Thank you.” Betty says, her voice croaky and quiet.

“You’re so brave.” Veronica replies, taking her hand once more. She pulls her into the car, where Hermione is waiting patiently, worry and kindness radiating from her expression.

“I don’t know about that…” Betty says, her eyes fixed on the floor. Veronica cuddles into her side, clicking in Betty’s seatbelt for her.

“You’re brave, because you’re still here, after all of it. And you can smile, and laugh, and tell me you love me and mean it.” Veronica says. Her eyes are filled with so much care and awe, Betty feels like crying again.

They sit in silence for a while, finding comfort in each other, and the soft hum of the car.

“Hey,” Veronica says softly, about five minutes from the doctor’s.

Betty turns to her, eyes attentive for the first time in a long time. Veronica pulls out her phone.

“Let’s do some research on therapy, together,” Veronica says. “You can get a second opinion on it, now.”

“Okay.” Betty says. She feels a small portion of leftover anxiety fizzle out in her chest. 

Veronica types in ‘is everything in therapy confidential’. Betty settles further as she sees the results.

“Legally, what you say in that room, stays there.” Veronica checks her expression. Seeming satisfied, she types in something else.

“You likely won’t ever go to a mental hospital.” She reads, gazing at Betty.

“But, there’s a chance that I might?” Betty asks. Veronica goes onto the website, skimming over it.

“Not without a referral from a psychiatrist, or parental consent. I promise, this guy will never send you there, okay? Alice took over custody of you, and she won’t send you to one after everything with Polly.” Betty exhales, going over Veronica’s reasoning her head.

“You’re right…”

“And you were right earlier, you can only go if you are a danger to people around you, which you aren’t. You’re the most loving, compassionate and honest person I’ve ever met. We’ve both done some bad things, but nothing abusive, I promise you.”

Betty nods along, grateful for Veronica. She tells it like it is, and doesn’t try to convince her she’s perfect…

“Thank you…” Betty says, curling into Veronica.

She feels Veronica’s soft lips on her forehead.

“I love you, Betty.”

“I love you too, Veronica.”


End file.
